


Familiarity

by ccjasper



Category: Camp Camp (Web Series)
Genre: (darla and gregg are just mentioned), (jasper thinks he's only been on the island for a few days and is alive), :'), Angst, Drabble, EDIT: in the bonus chapter david cries, Gen, Like, it isnt explicitly mentioned but i hope i made it obvious, jasper is crushing on davey & they r children, jaspvid is implied but like, lol, only in a puppy-love type way??
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-26
Updated: 2017-09-26
Packaged: 2019-01-05 15:14:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,966
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12192387
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ccjasper/pseuds/ccjasper
Summary: After hearing David's version of how he fell in love with camp, Nikki and Neil suspect that Jasper could be a ghost. So they drag an irritable, sleep deprived Max out to investigate. They find out a little more than they originally bargained for.





	1. Familiarity (actual)

**Author's Note:**

> this is unedited currently bc its 10pm and i want to post this but i also dont feel like editing??? i'll edit this later ok

It was apparent from the very beginning that David was making up bits and pieces of his story on how he came to absolutely adore this shithole of a camp, especially when he went to emphasize and act as if he’d foreshadowed his own actions fourteen years in advance - yeah, there was no way he fucking did that, and Max was sure to call him out. It was unknown to the ten year-old how on earth Nikki managed to find David’s story interesting at all. By the time David finished his story and the four of them - five? Does Space Kid count? - Max considered himself lucky that David had any service on his phone and they managed to get towed back to camp. Space Kid had to deal with Camp Campbell's shitty first-aid until they could actually bring him to the hospital.

Max had got the whole story off his mind by the time the blessing of sleep was almost upon him, one thing he could fully appreciate. Right when he was about to fall asleep, Nikki started her thoughtless chattering and asking Neil questions about David’s story. “Quiet.” Max grumbled, unable to bring himself to say much more in his tired state. Either Nikki didn’t hear him or he was just being ignored -  
   “The name Jasper sounds familiar, don’t you guys think?” She piped up, and as much as Max hated to admit, she was right, but he was much too tired to agree with her nor try to think of where it was familiar from. Thankfully, it appeared that Neil wasn’t up to replying either, and Max thought he might be able to get a little shut-eye now, right?  
Wrong.  
Evidently, Neil must’ve been thinking about it, suppose he agreed too. “Isn’t that the name of the kid on Spooky Island?” He asked, and almost immediately following, Max could hear blankets shifting with an enthusiasm that could’ve only come from Nikki.  
   “Do you think he’s a ghost?!” She asked, and without opening his eyes, he could tell that Nikki was sitting up in bed, eyes wide and obviously hyped up about the notion that ghosts exist - which, Max still believed otherwise, and he was becoming a little less tired as the two other campers kept with their disturbances. Max pulled his blanket over his head in a desperate attempt to get them to shut up. Sure, he’d fallen asleep with louder, anxiety-racking voices, but if he was going to survive camp, he needed rest to it’s fullest.  
   “Ghosts don’t exist, we’ve already been over this.” Max retorted, even without the cursing he was too tired to do, his tone suggested that he was a little more irritable than he was usually. He just wanted to sleep, and maybe just not wake up - then he wouldn’t have to deal with _David_.  
   “From David’s quotes and what I can remember, I would say his speech pattern is the same as David’s description.” Neil added onto what Nikki was saying, although his voice was a little quieter, perhaps he was trying to be respectful of Max trying to sleep as he pieced things about ‘ghosts’ together. It did make Max consider why the kid was on the island, and think about how he’d never seen him around, despite the bright orange shirt that could have only come from Camp Campbell's uniform. The notion made sense, but Max wasn’t convinced. It was a coincidence.  
   “Let’s go check it out!” Max could hear Nikki getting out of bed, and for a brief moment he hoped that they two would just go without him; it would give him enough peace and quiet to get to sleep. This little flicker of hope was put out as quick as it had come when he was pulled out of bed and out of the tent, only just barely having enough time to snag his sweater on the way out. Sweater in hand, Max was stumbling after Nikki, while Neil followed close behind.

They got to the dock and Max was surprised that he didn’t hear any complaints from Neil about how cold it was. While the other two pushed a boat out into the water, Max finally had a chance to slip his sweater on. At this point, there was no point turning back to go to his tent and sleep, besides, someone had to make sure these two didn’t get too scared to come back to the camp. This didn’t stop him from at least making the remark; “Why are you dragging me along on this? I didn’t take part in that conversation. Ghosts don’t exist.” Quite frankly, Max didn’t even understand why they were going in the first place. What were they going to do? Just waltz up and ask if Jasper was a ghost? Nikki made a remark about Max being scared, and mentioned that the three of them wouldn’t be going back into that summer home if it could be helped. The first remark was the reason Max got into the boat, the second the reason he shuttered. Dear god, the last time he was there he ended up half-traumatized, so he couldn’t really blame Nikki for making the assumption.

Max almost fell asleep on the boat multiple times on the way to the island, and actually managed a few minutes of sleep here and there on the ride. In fact, he was sleeping when they’d arrived, and the bump of the boat stilling against the sand woke him. He had to be helped out of the boat, he normally would have protested, but he was so tired that common sense kicked in and if he didn’t let Neil help him out, he’d end up falling head first in freezing cold water. His eyes normally felt heavy, but with his feet on some stable ground, they felt a tenfold - maybe even hundredfold - times heavier, and he couldn’t help but sway a little in his step, struggling not to pass out on the spot.  
   “He~llo?!” Nikki called out, cupping her hands around her mouth to amplify the volume of her voice. No response, and Max sat down on the sand, hood pulled up in case he passed out, he really didn’t want to get sand in his hair. As the two started off without him, Max had no choice but to get up and follow, he wasn’t scared, he just.. Didn’t want to be alone on the island, it’s common sense, really! It took an amount of time that Max couldn’t be bothered to even estimate until _someone_ (probably Max.) stepped on a twig, and there was a scream. _“Bingo.”_

Having startled Nikki and Neil, and having woken up Max a little, Jasper jumped out of the bush. What was with him and being in the bush? Why couldn’t he just hang out in the open like the rest of them? Did it have something to do with how skittish he was? “Uh-” Jasper began, “Oh!” Ugh, he better not start stuttering, that would make this trip so much longer than need be. “It’s you guys!” The blond seemed to visibly relax, and almost looked like he’d sighed inaudibly. Upon closer inspection with the context of why they were here, he did look rather ‘ghostly’. His eyes had a distinct blue glow to them, and it was difficult to tell whether or not his skin had a much duller blue glow or if it was just the moonlight. His clothes seemed perfectly ironed and his size despite there being nothing on this island to change into, nor wash clothes, Max stayed focused solely on trying to spot any dirt, grime or anything on his clothing, he wasn’t about to be convinced to believe in ghosts because of this dumbass kid living in the forest; he frustrated himself with how much effort he was putting into this, even freshly clothes only worn around inside should have some sort of blemish! He didn’t stop his endless hunt for dirt on the other boys body until Nikki punched him in the arm, a gesture that could only mean he should pay attention to the conversation. He almost  snapped at her in his frustration, but somehow managed to bite his tongue and put his mind elsewhere.  
   “So! Are you a ghost?” Nikki asked, _much_ too hyper for the concept of people typically being afraid of ghosts, but at least she was being straightforward, that means they’d be able to go back to camp faster, and Max would get to sleep. He couldn’t argue with that idea.  
Jasper shook his head no, and Max immediately turned to Nikki with both a feeling of wasted time and satisfaction, “I told you! Ghosts don’t exist.”  
 “Then why’d David mention you in his story?” Nikki seemed to ignore Max, obviously more interested in Jasper’s side of things. Why was she so interested in this story, anyways? It was bullshit. Regardless, Jasper seemed to get a little piped up at the mention of David - is there _really_ someone in this world who actively wants to hear about David?  
   “What’d he say about me?” Oh, thank god. He just wanted to know about it, that was understandable. At least that’s probably what he wanted. Nikki began to retell David’s story, but Max wasn’t about to sit through that again and he covered her mouth with a hand.  
   “Best camper, tripped off a cliff, got attacked by bears, David became the new best camper.” Max summarized, wanting to get this done and over with. Wanting to sleep. Jasper seemed a little disappointed to hear that the story was obviously about David’s experience as a camper, did he really- no, nobody really wants to hear from David, even Gwen only sticks around because she can’t get away, Daniel’s care was feigned, as he wanted to kill everyone, and most of the campers just wanted to get this summer at Camp Scambell over with. With another moment of thought, Max realized he had bigger problems than the shock of someone giving a fuck about David.  
_This kid doesn’t know he’s dead._ The thought intrusively entered his mind immediately, if Jasper knew what story he was talking about, he must’ve been there, and he hated to admit to himself that he actually _pitied_ Jasper for this. Neil seemed to take note of this too and was presumably thinking - and maybe feeling - the same thing as Max, and _oh my god, Neil, please no_.  
   “Why don’t you tell us your side of the story?” Neil suggested, shrugging as he nervously kept his hands close to his chest. Max sighed, loud, but with another wave of being tired, he figured he could just sleep through the story.

Max had no such luck, he hated to admit, but as Jasper told the story, he found himself a little more intrigued in listening than he had when it was David telling the story. He couldn’t put himself to sleep. At least this wouldn’t be as much of a waste of time.

**_(flashback - jasper)_ **

Jasper was a _little_ too modest to admit that he was expecting to be named the ‘Best Camper’, nor to admit that he’d been working hard at camp in hopes that there would be some sort of reward, and this was it! He would have something to bring home to his parents, to show them something to make them proud of him. It was exciting! It was rather noticeable that Cameron didn’t really know what he was doing, but it was something that Jasper could easily forgive.  
    _“Go on a hike, bring back a stick.”_ That sounded easy enough! Jasper looked up at Cameron, beaming. His moment was quickly ruined, however, when he heard Davey and his mickey-mouse voice making an effort to put him down.

-

“I’d always made attempts to get close and be nice to Davey, so I was-” Jasper was abruptly cut off by Max bursting out into laughter, Nikki and Neil looked down at him.  
   “Fucking! _Davey?_  You guys seriously-” Max began to calm down a little, wiping his eyes, “I thought David was just making shit up but oh my fucking _shit_ -”. Jasper pouted, beginning to get a little embarrassed by letting the name slip. He should’ve figured from the way the others talked about him that he should’ve called him David, but at least he found humour in it..?

Jasper forced a cough, and when Max was quiet, he took it as a sign to continue. “I was rather confused!” He went on.

-

Davey had never been a great camper, he’d never wanted to be there in the first place. Jasper had constantly tried to take pity on him, try to be his friend. If Jasper knew any better, he would have definitely said that he actually _‘like-like’d_ Davey. Which was pretty whack, if Jas did say so himself. Jasper wanted to be able to be someone that Davey could trust more than the counsellors, and he thought he had achieved that up until Davey had gone to ruin this moment for him.  
   “This is shit!” Davey marched up onto the stage, clearly upset with the results, but Jasper couldn’t bring himself to think of Davey as jealous, because he knew that Davey knew he wasn’t very nice.

-

Jasper paused as the other three looked rather shocked, Jasper considered asking about it, but the answer slipped out of Neil before Jasper could even open his mouth.  
   “ _David_ curses?” Oh.  
This was a shock? Had Davey changed so much? Jasper had grown curious now, perhaps he would ask about Davey after his story.  
There was a moment before Max had come to a conclusion out loud;  
   “He fucking _censored_ himself-”  
That made a little sense, but it still confused Jasper - Davey had never been one to hold his tongue. Once there was another silence, Jasper continued with his story.

-

“Nature doesn’t matter! Who even _cares?_ ” Jasper knew there was only so much time until David snapped on everyone, and Jasper was ready to just get over it because he knew Davey had to get it _out_ \- well, mostly because he was too nice to make a smartass remark at Davey for it, but that too. Then it was suggested that Davey get dragged into this little hike with them, and despite what had just happened..  
Jasper wasn’t against that at all.  
Being called a “Complete fucking square,” when he tried to calm Davey down hurt, but he believed just as much as the counsellors did that bringing Davey on this nature walk would definitely help, so he soaked it up like a sponge and they continued on this walk.  
   Of course Cameron got them lost without his fancy gadgets, and even Jasper was relieved to see that they’d stumbled across the tree they’d been looking for, so relieved in fact that he lacked the thought to watch where he stepped before tripping. Had he not hit the trunk of the tree first, he would not have had a fast enough reaction speed to have grab it in time to save himself from falling. The way his arms had wrapped around the tree while slipping slightly had made them sore and probably scraped up the inner part of his arm, perhaps he had a sliver or ten now. Regardless, it hurt to have the pressure of all his body weight pulling his arms down onto the tree trunk.  
    _“Jasper!”_ Oh thank god, Davey had laid down next to the cliff, reaching out to him. Jasper wanted to reach over, but feared losing his grip. He could tell from the way Davey was reaching out to him that he was confident that he’d be able to save him, he tore his gaze away from Davey to look down, he couldn’t see the bottom or anything to break his fall, while it was a good reality check, it made him all the more scared and he immediately reached out to grab the redheads hand. In the same moment, his other arm gave out, unable to hold his entire body weight itself.  
He screamed, panicking as he fell. 

He was lucky that he managed to grab at the cliff on his way down to slow his fall down enough for him not to die on impact, but he could already tell based on the pains he got from standing that he had sprained at least four different joints and definitely bruised his knees on the landing. He laid on the ground for at least ten minutes, trying to think of a way out, and generally just waiting for the pain to go away.  
Maybe it wasn’t just sprained, maybe he broke something too.  
Regardless, he had to do something or he’d just die here soon, so he stood up again, deciding to look for the nearest possible landmark. Thank goodness the counselors had oh-so conveniently talked about how you should always find a landmark if you’re separated from your group, and they’ll find you. When he came across a small pond, he was beyond relieved. The water presumably came from that same place they kept walking over earlier, so he sat down next to it, taking his shoes off to inspect his ankles. They didn’t look too horribly injured, aside from being red and throbbing like all hell, but nothing was twisted and there were no bones sticking out.  
He sat there with his feet in the water for a while, hoping the cool water would do good to prevent any further swelling around his ankles. Under normal circumstances, it would be unusual for an eleven year old to know this much about first aid, but this was a _summer camp_ , of course he’d be taught some of the basics such as this. As far as he could tell, he wasn’t bleeding anywhere aside from a few scrapes here and there- nothing serious that he really needed to wrap up. They’d put disinfectant when he got back to camp, he was sure.  
   He heard noise behind himself and perhaps he got a little too excited without proof of it being actual people. He scurried to his feet, _“Hey, home skillets! I thought you’d never show-”_

-

Everyone had sat down on the ground by the next time Jasper paused, this time pulling his knees up to his chest. Making it quite obvious to the other three that the thought of the next chain of events was rather.. Distressing, to say the least.  
   “You get attacked by bears, and David saves you.” Max stated, suddenly appearing much less interested in the story.  
Jasper nodded, staying silent for a few moments as he waited to be able to trust his voice to not crack, “Davey told me that Cameron tried to just leave me to die,” He whispered, only just loud enough for everyone to hear. Wiping his eyes, he finished the thought, “I owe him my life.”  
   “You’re dead.” Max retorted, and Jasper shook a little before taking a deep breath, ignoring the comment, and continuing his story.  
“I was lucky that they found me in that cave, but now I spend my time around where they are now.” Sure, he was glad that the bears that tried to kill him were dead, but it was still rather alarming to see whenever he went into that house.

-

When they’d gotten back to camp, it turned out that they didn’t really _have_ the needed medical supplies to disinfect and clean Jasper’s wounds from falling and from the bears claws, but that was no problem!

Jasper had always assumed it was one of the magic camp kids who did it, but when he woke up, all his wounds were gone and he felt like he could go for years with endless energy, but despite the positives, everyone was ignoring him in favour of Davey- in fact, Davey was getting all the attention this time. It seemed like the tables had turned, and Jasper was happy for Davey.  
Though all the ignoring did get to him, so he decided to visit Spooky Island for a little bit and maybe come back with an impressive story to tell when he got back.

-

 

_“Anyways, when did you guys arrive at camp?”_


	2. bonus chapter: Ownership

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jasper has a hard time cluing into the fact he’s a ghost, until reality slaps him in the face. Not knowing what to do when he sees an old friend, Jasper spurs into panic.

The gentle rocking and quiet sound of the motor was all that Max could hear as the Neil silently steered the boat back across the lake, it was soothing. Nikki was quiet, watching the water, or perhaps she’d given up trying to converse with Neil, or perhaps she was getting a bit tired herself. Max didn’t know, and he didn’t quite care enough as he found himself drifting in and out of sleep for the first half of the ride, and he’d fallen into a deep, almost dreamless sleep for the rest of the ride.   
   When he did dream, however, it was much too vivid. First, he dreamt of falling off the boat, but rather than falling into water, it turned into walls of stone and dirt around him, and he felt an unfamiliar feeling; though not unknown. He was scared as he fell, afraid of dying, afraid of almost dying but laying there in pain. He kept falling until he’d fallen into a deeper sleep. He woke up into another dream, this time he was sitting at the bottom of a cliff, surrounded with hundreds of thousands of large bears painlessly tearing away at his limbs, then he fell back into a deeper, dreamless stage of sleep yet again. He kept having varied nightmares, although they’d all centred around falling, bears, and Nikki, Neil and David abandoning him, starting to not care.  
   When he was finally startled awake by hitting the ground in his dream, he was sweating, and he felt a dull pain over his entire body. He was in his tent, was  the whole trip last night a dream? No, he was much too tired for that. Max sat up and stretched his arms out, looking around the tent as he felt a strange feeling of not being alone. Not quite being watched, but he wasn’t alone. Yet he was, it was strange, just like the dreams he had last night. When Max had nightmares, they were usually about his parents, not about stupid things he didn’t even really fear. His back was tense, the same kind of anxiety-tense that he got whenever his parents were at the yelling again, or when he walked into the same room as his parents and he immediately went to being as quiet as possible around those two in particular, he hadn’t felt it since he left the house, so why now? Max didn’t feel any sort of anxiety, so the fact his body was reacting as if he did was abnormal.   
   He slipped out of his sweater before leaving the tent, remembering to close it this time as if it were some second nature. He felt it odd as he noticed that he remembered to zip it shut all the way, but brushed it off; he was _finally_ cluing into the camping habits, or maybe Neil had finally got it through his head that bugs in your tent _fucking suck_.  
   The next odd new ‘second nature’ of the day was standing up a little straighter. For some reason, and of course confusing himself, Max couldn’t bring himself to slouch like he normally did. He overall seemed a little softer and more welcoming; his resting bitch face looked more like a neutral, perhaps even a tad freaked out expression - not that he knew that part, of course, - something was a little off about himself, but he couldn’t be half assed to figure out what. He had one thing on his mind; _David_.  
 _Wait, what?_  
 _No,_ he was thinking of _coffee_. _  
_ The sudden thought of David brought Max to wonder where he could be, usually he was out out of his cabin and helping dish out food for everyone with a big smile on his face. It was an unusual sight not to see him around, and part of Max wondered if he was okay, where he was, what he was doing, and all sorts of questions - but _why?  
_ Max didn’t give a shit about David, he’d rather avoid him, so _why_ was he feeling all the physical effects of worry whenever he thought of him? A light tug in his stomach at first, and next it was constant glancing at the door, waiting for _David_.   
   Once he set his coffee down, it occurred to him that he had forgotten his sweater in the tent. _No_ , he’d taken it off before leaving for a reason unknown to him. It felt natural, like he was _supposed_ to have his arms uncovered, yet _extremely_ uncomfortable and unnatural to not be in his sweater. It didn’t occur to him that he’d been holding his breath in frustration as he had this little dilemma over whether or not he should go grab his sweater until his chest had begun to feel sore and he took in a sharp breath, deciding in that very moment that he wasn’t going to go retrieve his sweater.  
   David entered the room, Max’s eyes widened and he blacked out - well, __Max blacked out.

_ Jasper, _ on the other hand…

_“Davey!”_ Max’s voice felt odd to use, it was much too deep for his liking, but it would have to suffice. Seeing Davey this tall… That must mean..  
No. He wasn’t a ghost, he was-  
He was in Max’s body, but that didn’t make him a ghost! Surely!  
 _Possession,_ was a word that came to mind rather quickly, and it hit Jasper like a rock; “I’m dead!” He concluded, getting out of his seat to approach Davey. He’d grown up to be pretty tall, and Jasper couldn’t help but stare in awe for a few seconds, admiring how well he’d grown up, and wishing that he, Jasper, could’ve grown up as well. He was also happy to see a familiar face- sure, he saw the Quartermaster on the island regularly, and occasionally saw Cameron, but those two didn’t count. They weren’t Jasper’s friends, Jasper didn’t trust them, but Davey was someone Jasper could be quite excited to see after all the time he spent alone.  
   “Max?” David asked, obviously taken aback by the sudden affection from ‘Max’. Right, that must mean that Max isn’t close to Davey! Jasper could work with that, it’d be okay once he explained everything-  
   “No, it’s me, Jasper!” He responded immediately, Max’s eyes glowing with the same dull blue light that he’d observed from Jasper the night before. Not that Davey nor Jasper would notice, but it made him look… Off. Of course the lack of sweater and the posture changes seemed different, but the blue eyes were definitely off-putting in a way that David spent several minutes in silence staring down at Max, obviously uncomfortable.  
   “Now, Max..” Davey started, and Jasper could notice how painfully obvious it was that David was trying not to think too deeply into this, it wasn’t that it seemed like Davey didn’t believe him, but it appeared more like he didn’t _want_ to believe Jasper was present. “If you’ve been looking through my cabin, you can just tell me.” He spoke softly, and Jasper immediately felt a strong wave of guilt.  
   “But it’s like- _really_ me!” Max’s eyes started to tear up with emotions that didn’t belong to him, and Jasper would have left the body immediately if he didn’t like how organic it felt to feel his heart fall into his stomach at David’s expression, how fresh it felt to feel his feet flat on the ground, even if he was beginning to shake at the thought of David refusing to believe it was him. It felt so much _better_ to feel stares burning into a real back, to be able to tell where his limbs were without looking to see them. To feel his own hand on his face as he wiped his eyes, __“I totally missed you, Davey-”  
   David began to step away from the crying child, and Jasper couldn’t blame him. It was only natural to be afraid of ghosts, especially while one is possessing one of your campers, but Jasper wasn’t about to give up because Davey was scared. He’d followed Max back to see Davey in the first place, and now he finally got to do that. “Davey?” Jasper asked, looking up at him.  
   David took in a deep breath before sighing and turning away to leave, “Jasper’s been dead for fourteen years, Max. Don’t bring him back up.”

The rest of the day went by slowly. He could hear people talking about him, which only added to the tense anxiety feeling in Jasper’s-technically-Max’s back, he could hear them saying things along the lines of how it was odd for Max to act out like this. About David’s nickname, Davey. What had happened that morning quickly became the talk of the camp, but Jasper wasn’t going to back down because of embarrassment, nor was he going to back down because the rest of the camp was avoiding him in almost the same way he had been ignored when he died, except this time, he didn’t feel invisible; he felt fully visible, and  _ completely ignored _ .  
    Soon enough, word starting going around that Nikki, Max and Neil had gone out to Spooky Island the night before all this, and he hoped that this would mean people could believe that it was him, because if the campers believed him, then hopefully Davey would come around eventually, too.

  
The thought of Davey no longer pulled Jasper’s heart towards the edge of his chest, now it made his heart feel cold and stuck to the pit of his stomach.  _ Sick.  _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [ this is just a little extra piece i wrote because you guys really seemed to like the actual/original drabble ;; it's short (1589 words) and unedited, but this was also a good excuse for me to write that possession au ive been thinking about a lot. thank you for all the nice comments!!! i really appreciate it, u guys are too nice to me aaaa ]


End file.
